Mediaboss Marketing

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire -03/19/12)- Peace of mind is often a commodity that you cannot buy. However, with On the Beach, every booking is covered by the online travel agent's ATOL licence. This will ensure that your cheap holidays abroad are financially protected in the unlikely event of a supplier failure.

On the Beach has recently gained their ATOL from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The protection will be provided by a combination of a CAA approved Trust Fund, which protects all customers in the unlikely event of On the Beach's insolvency, and airline failure insurance, meaning that any element of your holiday that is undermined by supplier failure will be refunded. On the Beach will also guarantee that the other parts of your holiday will go ahead.

Customers will now have maximum confidence when booking their holiday with On the Beach. Everything, including scheduled flights, chartered flights, low-cost flights, overseas hotel accommodation, and overseas transfers is covered by the ATOL Protection. Full details of this financial protection are contained within the online travel agent's booking conditions.

On the Beach's ATOL protection applies to all UK bookings made from the 22nd July 2011. For further information about its ATOL Protection, visit the financial protection page of the On the Beach website.

For more than ten years, On the Beach has been offering value for money summer holidays for singles, couples and families. Whether you are looking for a romantic getaway, five-star break, or a dynamic family holiday, On the Beach has access to some of the best holiday deals around the world.

For those looking for flights, hotels and a great holiday package, visit the On the Beach. There are a number of great deals on Tenerife, Ibiza, Crete, and Majorca holidays.

About On the Beach

Founded in 1995, On the Beach is one of the UK's leading online travel agencies carrying over 500,000 passengers every year (ABTA K0813). On the Beach provides value for money flights and hotels in the world's most popular beach holiday destinations. On the Beach provides consumers with a huge selection of travel products, from 50 million available seats, more than 30,000 hotels around the world, insurance and in-resort transfer partners. Customers can book online at http://www.onthebeach.co.uk or by calling the UK call centre on 0870 606 07 08.

As the expert provider of DIY beach holidays to the UK market, On the Beach is so confident of its industry leading position, it offers a market leading price match guarantee for its customers. On the Beach will refund the difference if a lower price is found for the same product on any UK website(i).

(i)Offer applies to exact product match

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Have Confidence This Summer With ATOL Protection from On the Beach

Ron Levine / Getty Images

Relax body, mind and soul with a yoga vacation.

By Jordan Kisner, Departures.com

Few forms of escapism are as wholesome as yoga. As its millions of acolytes attest, regular yoga practice not only alleviates stress and improves strength and flexibility (recent reports even credit it for enhanced sexual health), its also an activity that can be done just about anywhere. Just taking a smartphone-free hour to practice sun salutations can feel like a mini-vacation.

Slideshow: See these and more top yoga retreats

But even for the yogically inclined, more than an hourlong getaway is sometimes necessary. Its certainly alluring, especially since there are so many options for rolling up your sticky mat and dashing off to an exotic locale.

These days, there are yoga retreats that cater to every ability level and goal. Some, such as the Ayurvedic Rejuvenation Retreat at Shreyas Resort in Bangalore, emphasize the traditional holistic benefits of yoga (participants receive health and dietary consultations, plus personalized ayurvedic spa treatments, along with their classes). Others, like Yada Yada Yogas Bespoke Yoga Retreat at the St. Regis Bahia Beach, offers guests the opportunity to combine yoga with other activities like paddleboarding, kayaking and hiking, while others offer it as a double bill with music, photography and cultural study.

Whether the goal is serenity or invigoration, ancient traditions or innovative approaches, here are five places to make your escape.

Ayurvedic Rejuvenation Retreat, Shreyas Resort, Bangalore, India

At this ashram-style retreat in India, guests receive personalized ayurvedic therapies (likeabhyanga, a traditional Indian massage) with one-on-onepranayama(guided breathing) and meditation sessions. The retreat is designed to help guests take their practices with them when they leave, incorporating vegetarian cooking classes and consultations on integrating yoga practice into daily life. Shreyas practices karma yoga, the yoga of giving back; guests can do service by working in a community garden, volunteering in the local school or planting trees.Seven-night stay, from $3,340; shreyasretreat.com.

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Catch your breath at these yoga retreats

Victoria Ransom is founder and CEO of Wildfire Interactive, the global leader in social media marketing software. Victoria and Wildfire will host a free webinar on March 2 at 10 a.m. PT, entitled Timeline for Brands: How to Make the Switch, further outlining best practices for brands in transitioning to Facebooks new Timeline format.

Facebook recently revealed big plans for the mobile platform, for instance, that the new Timeline format for brands will be available on mobile. Facebook also revealed that more than 450 million people use Facebook Mobile on a monthly basis, and more importantly, that mobile is outgrowing desktop use on the social network 2:1.

[More from Mashable: Pew: Social Media Not Yet Driving News Traffic]

For these reasons, Facebook has planned a variety of mobile-centric products, including last weeks announcement that brands will now be able to advertise in mobile news feeds through Sponsored Stories.

These game-changing trends mean that marketers need to get serious about mobile in 2012. Here are three new ways you can build mobile into your Facebook marketing plan.

[More from Mashable: 7 Tech CEOs Talk About Their iPad Obsession]

Timeline for brands is coming to the mobile platform in 2012. When you consider that brand pages on Facebook Mobile have had almost no functionality custom apps havent worked without a complicated hack-job, tabs havent translated, etc. it seems possible that Timeline for brands was launched specifically to enable brands mobile Facebook capabilities.

And since users' Timelines function on Facebook Mobile, Timeline for brands should be equally versatile, giving brands the ability to provide engaging mobile experiences for the first time.

Since nearly half of Facebook users access the site through a mobile device, your brands reach could effectively double if you mobile-optimize your social content. And because users will soon be able to experience the same workflow on their desktops as their smartphones, page managers will now be able to curate an identical experience for all users, regardless of viewing device.

Whether youre building engagement applications in-house or with a social marketing software vendor, make sure the applications are seamlessly viewable across all platforms and devices. Ideally, youll be able to design once and deploy anywhere. That way, you'll avoid messy synchronization issues, duplication of effort between creative teams, and working around multiple content channels.

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3 Ways Marketers Can Reach Facebook's Mobile Audience

Research by Mindshift Interactive says Club Mahindra, ITC, Taj Hotels, Oberoi Group and Pride Hotels are the top five companies actively involved in marketing on social media

Mumbai, March 19:

The travel and hospitality industry is going social with a vengeance to engage and network with travellers. According to a study, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are the most popular and effective social media platforms for marketing within the tourism and hospitality industry.

The industry uses these networks to review brands, locations and read user experiences, whilst also responding actively to queries and comments.

According to a research conducted by Mindshift Interactive, the top five hospitality players in the Indian market that are actively involved in the social media space are Club Mahindra, ITC, Taj Hotels, Oberoi Group and Pride Hotels.

Club Mahindra with 51 per cent had the maximum number of conversations, followed by ITC with 21 per cent and Taj Hotels at 17 per cent. Oberoi Group (8 per cent) and Pride Hotels (3 per cent) ranked at the bottom with respect to its presence on Social Media.

The increased dependency on social media by travellers is growing faster than the travel industry itself. India's travel category garnered the second largest share (42 per cent) of total Internet visitors in Asia, with 17.8 million average monthly unique visitors in the first quarter of 2011. With the digital media ecosystem in India evolving rapidly, the number of Internet users is expected to cross 546 million users by 2016, a report by KPMG said. Continued growth in internet penetration and mobile device access is expected to drive consumption and bring about a 360 degree approach for marketing.

Brands today are spending almost 20 to 30 per cent of their marketing budgets on digital and these figures are expected to grow with years to come. Hotels present on the social media platforms are beginning to understand their consumer's better, said Mr Zafar Rais, CEO of MindShift Interactive.

With over 63,467 fans and an engagement ratio of 14 per cent, Club Mahindra leads the presence on Facebook. Club Mahindra leads the Twitter presence with 7,159 followers and effective engagement.

Oberoi Hotels has over 10, 879 fans on Facebook with an engagement ratio of 3.5 per cent. ITC has over 15,402 fans with an engagement ratio of 2 per cent. Taj Hotels has integrated their campaigns such as Mlange - Vote for Art and Marathon For A Cause with social media. The Twitter presence of Taj Hotels is as @TajMahalMumbai with 2,444 followers.

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Travel and hospitality sector ramps up social media marketing

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Mzinga (http://www.mzinga.com), the leader in social intelligence solutions, services and analytics for business, and Pandemic Labs, the nations premier social media marketing agency, today announced a partnership to deliver social technology and services solutions to customers.

Pandemic Labs has been committed to the strategy behind social media marketing longer than most agencies, and as part of that commitment we have always been at the forefront of technology that allows us to create marketing success, said Matt Peters, Co-Founder & Creative Director of Pandemic Labs. Through this partnership, we will be able to enhance our best-of-breed social media marketing services with the comprehensive social features available in Mzingas platform, OmniSocial.

Today, enterprises of all sizes recognize the opportunity and value of establishing effective, rich customer, employee, partner and brand experiences, for global business through the use of social technologies and strategies. Mzingas social software and the services of Pandemic Labs will help enterprises increase revenue through collaboration, improve customer loyalty and gain insight into employee performance to increase competitive advantage, ultimately driving more sound business decision making and growth.

We are thrilled to add Pandemic Labs to our growing repertoire of trusted partners to bring full-service social strategy solutions to the market, said Mike Merriman, Director of Strategic Services, at Mzinga. The work Pandemic has done with large brands like Au Bon Pain, The Ritz-Carlton and others closely aligns with our customer base to deliver best-in-class social solutions and agency services to customers.

Mzinga OmniSocial is an enterprise-class social software and analytics solution that enables businesses to foster networking, collaboration, engagement and knowledge sharing to glean insights that drive better business decisions and previously untapped levels of productivity and innovation.

About Pandemic Labs

Pandemic Labs is one of the nations leading social media marketing and analytics agencies. Founded in 2007 by young visionaries Brennan White and Matt Peters, Pandemic Labs works with a diverse client base, ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. They have worked with high-profile brands such as The Ritz-Carlton, Au Bon Pain, Puma, DIRECTV, Canon, Courtyard by Marriott, and The Wild Foundation. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Pandemic Labs currently manages social media marketing campaigns in more than 20 countries and six languages.

For more information on Pandemic Labs visit http://www.pandemiclabs.com.

About Mzinga

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Mzinga and Pandemic Labs Partner to Deliver End-to-End Social Experience Solutions